Sunday, August 31, 2014

At Risk in Senate, Democrats Seek to Rally Blacks

WASHINGTON — With their Senate majority imperiled, Democrats are trying to
mobilize African-Americans outraged by the shooting in Ferguson, Mo., to help
them retain control of at least one chamber of Congress for President Obama’s
final two years in office.

In black churches and on black talk radio,
African-American civic leaders have begun invoking the death of Michael Brown in
Ferguson, along with conservative calls to impeach Mr. Obama, as they urge black
voters to channel their anger by voting Democratic in the midterm elections, in
which minority turnout is typically lower.

“Ferguson has made it crystal clear to the
African-American community and others that we’ve got to go to the polls,” said
Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia and a civil-rights leader. “You
participate and vote, and you can have some control over what happens to your
child and your country.”

The push is an attempt to counter Republicans’
many advantages in this year’s races, including polls that show Republican
voters are much more engaged in the elections at this point — an important
predictor of turnout.

And the terrain is tricky: Many of the states where the black vote could be most
crucial are also those where Mr. Obama is deeply unpopular among many white
voters. So Democratic senators in places like Arkansas, Louisiana and North
Carolina must distance themselves from the nation’s first African-American
president while trying to motivate the black voters who are his most loyal
constituents.

The black vote could prove particularly decisive in four Southern states:
Georgia and Louisiana, where African-Americans make up more than 30 percent of
eligible voters; North Carolina, where they are 22 percent; and Arkansas, 15
percent.

While minority turnout traditionally declines in nonpresidential election years,
there have been midterm elections in which Southern blacks played a pivotal
role. An example occurred in 1998, when President Bill Clinton was, like Mr.
Obama, under fire from Republicans and nearing the end of his White House years.

Republicans are skeptical of the effort, saying that ultimately, voters’
frustration with Mr. Obama will determine the outcome of the races.

“He’s not as weak as Bush in ’06 or Obama in
’10, but there is a fatigue, a sense that he’s ready to move on and we’re ready
to move on, too,” said Glen Bolger, a Republican pollster.

Given Mr. Obama’s unpopularity, national Democratic leaders have essentially
encouraged their party’s candidates to make clear their differences with the
president, especially in the most conservative states. And the candidates have
done so, sometimes rather colorfully.